A new bill aimed at curbing illegal home conversions and subdivisions passed City Council this week with unanimous support. Under Intro 1218, proposed by City Council member Vincent Gentile, landlords who convert property into illegal apartments will be fined $15,000 for every unit above the property’s certificate of occupancy, Brklyner reported. If the fine goes unpaid, it could result in a lien sale on the property, according to the website. The bill also beefs up […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/12/city-council-passes-bill-targeting-landlords-who-illegally-subdivide-homes/

Current reader favorites: 1. Sam Zell on WeWork: “I wouldn’t let those guys near my business with a 10-foot pole” 2. Who is Nicole Kushner Meyer? 3. Sizing up NYC’s biggest construction bosses 4. Robert Gladstone’s risky business 5. The Long View: Premier Agent program is a race to the bottom Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/12/top-trd-stories/

Colombian financier and beer heir Carlos Alejandro Pérez Dávila has picked up the late art collector Robert Ellsworth’s sprawling Upper East Side co-op for $55 million. Property records show Pérez Dávila — a former investment banker and a member of the wealthy Colombian family that controls brewing giant SABMiller — purchased the third-floor pad at 960 Fifth Avenue through Quadrant Capital Advisors, a New York-based fund he co-manages with his cousin Alejandro Santo Domingo, head […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/beer-heir-snags-ues-co-op-for-55m/

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group closed on its $2.21 billion purchase of 245 Park Avenue, or $1,227 per square foot, records show. The deal marks one of the biggest prices ever paid for a Manhattan office tower and is an example of how Chinese money continues to play a significant role in the New York market despite increased capital controls at home. Very few Manhattan properties have ever crossed the $2 billion threshold — the list […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/hna-closes-on-2-21b-purchase-of-245-park/

Chinese outbound investment fell by 67 percent in the first four months of 2017, according to Bloomberg — the biggest decline since 2009. The drop comes after a record year in 2016, when Chinese firms bought $246 billion worth of foreign assets. Tighter capital controls, designed to shore up China’s currency and promote investment within the country, are likely to blame. Regulators now discourage splashy real estate deals abroad and investments by Chinese companies in […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/chinese-investment-abroad-falls-by-67-amid-capital-controls/

A new bill seeks to require the city to provide an annual report on waiting lists for each Mitchell-Lama housing development. The report would take stock of how many new residents applied for this type of affordable housing each year and were not selected. The proposed measure would also require the city to publish the average rent increases for the developments and the number of complaints it received about the waiting list. “Considering the housing […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/new-bill-would-require-city-to-publish-annual-report-on-mitchell-lama-developments/

Kushner Companies dominated the biggest sales in Brooklyn for the start of 2017 with a pair of office deals worth about $700 million. Kushner, along with LIVWRK and RFR Realty, took the top spot for Brooklyn deals in 2017’s first quarter with their roughly $600 million purchase of Dumbo Heights, and they occupied the number two spot as well with their roughly $100.3 million sale of 175 Pearl St. to Normandy Real Estate Partners. These […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/these-are-the-biggest-brooklyn-deals-of-the-first-quarter/

David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group is seeking EB-5 funds for its 228-unit Financial District condominium tower, which will be designed by noted architect David Adjaye and is expected to be valued at $701 million. The developer recently launched a teaser site for the 800-foot building at 130 William Street, which it is calling the Wall Street Tower. On Lightstone’s EB-5 website, the company is seeking $100 million, or 18 percent of the project’s total cost, from […] Read More >> https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/11/lightstone-group-seeks-eb-5-funds-for-700m-fidi-condo-project/